Mobile device and eye-protection control method thereof

ABSTRACT

A mobile device and an eye-protection control method thereof are provided. The mobile device includes a display screen, an image capture unit, and a processer. The display screen is for displaying information. The image capture unit is for capturing a first image. The processer is coupled to the image capture unit to obtain the first image. The processer performs a human face detection to the first image to judge whether the first image has a human face information of a user. The processer counts a plurality of time periods when the first image has the human face information and adds up the time periods to a cumulative time, and the processer judges whether to perform an eye-protection operation through the cumulative time and a time threshold. Accordingly, the mobile device can remind the user to protect eyes and avoid overuse of the eyes.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to a control method of a mobile device,and more particularly, to a mobile device with an eye-protectionfunction and an eye-protection control method thereof.

2. Description of the Prior Art

With the development of the wireless communication technology andmaturity of the information technology environment, more and more peopleuse hand-held mobile device, such as mobile phone, personal digitalassistant or tablet computer, to manage many things, for example,communicating with friends by the communication software, watchinginternet messages, image or video, playing games, etc. The user usuallyuses the hand-held mobile device for a prolonged time or uses thehand-held mobile device frequently because of popularization andconvenience of the hand-held mobile device, thereby causing the userhaving diseases of civilization in relation to overuse of eyes orimproper viewing posture. In other words, since the display screen ofthe hand-held mobile device is smaller, and the user doesn't notice thedistance between the eyes and the display screen, the viewing angle ofthe eyes to the display screen or the user's posture, the eyes of theuser may overuse, which results in the problem of gradually sore eyesand even decreased vision.

Therefore, how to remind the user to properly use the mobile device andnot to overuse it through the present technology is an objective inwhich the field researches.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention provides a mobile device with an eye-protectionfunction for a user and an eye-protection control method thereof, whichactively detects and records time periods, viewing distance and/or eyemovement, such as blink, staring at screen obliquely, etc., when theuser stares at the mobile device, thereby reminding the user to protecthis eyes and avoiding overusing his eyes.

The mobile device of the present invention includes a display screen, animage capture unit, and a process. The display screen is for displayinginformation. The image capture unit is for capturing a first imagefacing the display screen of the mobile device. The processer is coupledto the image capture unit to obtain the first image. The processerperforms a human face detection to the first image to judge whether thefirst image has a human face information of a user. The processer countsa plurality of time periods when the first image has the human faceinformation and adds up the time periods to a cumulative time. Theprocesser performs a judgment through the cumulative time and a timethreshold. The processer performs an eye-protection operation when thecumulative time is larger than the time threshold. The eye-protectionoperation includes displaying a reminder information or an alertinformation by the display screen of the mobile device, temporarilyturning off the display screen or shutting down the mobile device.

An eye-protection control method of a mobile device of the presentinvention includes the following steps, and the mobile device includesan image capture unit. A first image is captured by the image captureunit. A human face detection performed to the first image to judgewhether the first image has a human face information of a user. Aplurality of time periods are counted when the first image has the humanface information, and time periods are added up to a cumulative time.And, a judgment is performed through the cumulative time and a timethreshold, and an eye-protection operation is performed when thecumulative time is larger than the time threshold.

A mobile device includes a display screen, an image capture unit, and aprocess. The display screen is for displaying information. The imagecapture unit captures a first image. The process is coupled to the imagecapture unit to obtain the first image. The processer performs a humanface detection to the first image so as to obtain a human faceinformation from the first image, detects a left face area and a rightface area of the human face information, and judges that the user staresat the display screen obliquely and performs an eye-protection operationwhen a ratio of the left face area to the right face area is not equalto a predetermined ratio in a predetermined time.

According to the above-mentioned description, in the embodiments of thepresent invention, the mobile device and the eye-protection controlmethod thereof can actively detect and record the time periods while theuser uses the mobile device, the viewing angle, the viewing distancewhile the user stares at the display screen and even the eye movement ofthe user (such as blink, viewing screen obliquely, etc.), and judgewhether to remind the user to protect eyes or whether to perform aneye-protection operation through adding up the time periods, so that theuser's eyes is protected from overusing to achieve the reminding to usethe mobile device properly and is protected from harm due to the userstares at the display screen too long and improperly. In addition, thehealth situation of the user can be obtained through analyzing the humanface information of the user, and a corresponding advice is furtherprovided in the embodiments of the present invention.

These and other objectives of the present invention will no doubt becomeobvious to those of ordinary skill in the art after reading thefollowing detailed description of the preferred embodiment that isillustrated in the various figures and drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram of illustrating a mobile device 100according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flow chart illustrating an eye-protection control method ofthe mobile device according to a first embodiment of the presentinvention.

FIG. 3A is a flowchart illustrating an eye-protection control method ofthe mobile device according to a second embodiment of the presentinvention.

FIG. 3B is a flowchart illustrating an eye-protection control method ofthe mobile device according to a variant of the second embodiment of thepresent invention.

FIG. 4A and FIG. 4B are schematic diagrams illustrating three sequentialtime periods while the first image in the three adjacent time periodshas the human face information of the same user.

FIG. 4C is a schematic diagram illustrating four sequential time periodswhile the first image in the four sequential time periods has the humanface information of different users.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating an eye-protection control method ofthe mobile device according to a third embodiment of the presentinvention.

FIG. 6A and FIG. 6B are schematic diagrams illustrating the calculationof viewing angle of the user staring at the display screen.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart illustrating an eye-protection control method ofthe mobile device according to a fourth embodiment of the presentinvention.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart illustrating an eye-protection control method ofthe mobile device according to the fifth embodiment of the presentinvention.

FIG. 9A and FIG. 9B are schematic diagrams illustrating the left facearea and the right face area of the human face information according tothe fifth embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In order to remind the user not to overuse eyes, an image capture unitin a mobile device is for obtaining a human face information of the userin the embodiments of the present invention, and the viewing time of theuser, the viewing angle of the user watching the display screen, theviewing distance between the user and the display screen, and an eyemovement of the user, such as blink or viewing the display screenobliquely, etc., are actively detected through the image analysistechnology. These parameters are considered synthetically to judgewhether to perform an eye-protection operation, such as to remind theuser to rest or to shut off the mobile device, and the user's eyes areaccordingly prevented from overusing. The embodiments complying with thespirit of the invention is provided in the following description as areference for applying the present invention.

FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram of illustrating a mobile device 100according to an embodiment of the present invention. The mobile device100 at least includes a display screen 110, an image capture unit 120,and a processer 130. The processer 130 is coupled to the image captureunit 120 and the display screen 110. The mobile device 100 may be anelectronic device having the display screen 110 and being capable ofbeing held in a user's hand, which is for example a smart mobile phone,a functional mobile phone, a tablet computer, a personal digitalassistant, etc. The display screen 110 may be a liquid crystal displayscreen, an active matrix organic light-emitting diode (AMOLED) displayscreen, etc. The processer 130 may control the display screen 110 todisplay text information or image information.

In this embodiment, the image capture unit 120 is for capturing the facesituation of the user which operates the mobile device 100 so as tojudge whether the user stares at the display screen 110, to calculate aviewing angle of the user staring at the display screen 110 and tocalculate the distance between the user and the mobile device 100. Inother words, the image capture unit 120 is for capturing a first imagefacing the display screen 110 in the mobile device 100, and the imagecapture unit 120 transmits the first image to the processer 100 forfurther analyzing in the following steps. Specifically, the imagecapture unit 120 may be a rear camera facing the user, so that the imagecapture unit 120 can capture the user which is staring at the mobiledevice 100. In some embodiments, the mobile device 100 can include aplurality of cameras (such as a front camera and a rear camera). Therear camera of the mobile device 100 is used as the image capture unit120 in this embodiment of the present invention. In other embodiments,the mobile device 100 may also be communicated with an external imagecapture unit 120 outside the mobile device 100 through wireless, therebyachieving the effect of “capturing the face situation of the useroperating the mobile device 100” in this embodiment.

The time periods of the user using the mobile device 100 which areseparated from each other can be summed up, and whether there is a needto perform an eye-protection operation due to overuse of the user's eyesis judged through the information of the cumulative time in thisembodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a flow chart illustratingan eye-protection control method of the mobile device 100 according to afirst embodiment of the present invention. Referring to FIG. 1 and FIG.2 together, in the step S210, the processer 130 takes or captures thefirst image through the image capture unit 120. This is to say that theimage capture unit 120 takes the first image, and the processer 130obtains the first image from the image capture unit 120. The imagecapture unit 120 may be the rear camera of the mobile device 100 that isdisposed at the same side as the display screen 110 facing the user.

In the step S220, the processer 130 performs a human face detection tothe first image so as to judge whether the first image has a human faceinformation of the user. The named “human face detection” may also becalled “facial recognition technology”. In this embodiment, whether theuser is staring at the mobile device 100 can be judged according to thepresent facial recognition technology. If the judgment result in thestep S220 is “Yes”, which means the mobile device 100 is being used andwatched by the user, the processer 130 enters the step S230 to count atime period when the first image has the human face information of theuser so as to obtain how long the user stares at the display screen 110of the mobile device 100.

If the time period is in excess of a predetermined threshold or athreshold set by the user (for example the threshold of each using timeis set to be 30 or 60 minutes), which means the user′ eyes overuse andneed rest, the eye-protection operation is performed. Most of userswon't use the mobile device 100 directly so long but usually use themobile device 100 in several time periods, and a cumulative time that isthe sum of the time periods is too long. However, there is no relatedmechanism to sum the different time periods in which the user uses themobile device 100. In the step S240, the processer 130 adds up theseparated time periods in which the user stares at the display screen110 to calculate a cumulative time, and simultaneously returns back tothe step S220 to continuously judge whether the first image has thehuman face information of the user thereby obtaining the cumulativetime. At the same time, in the step S250, the processer 130 judgeswhether to perform the eye-protection operation through the cumulativetime and the time threshold. For example, the mobile device 100 makesthe cumulative time zero in a specific time every day, and when thecumulative time reaches for example two hours (time threshold) (whichmeans the cumulative time is larger than the time threshold), the user'seyes overuse, and there's a need to perform the eye-protectionoperation. The time threshold can be a predetermined value when themobile device 100 is produced or can be set by the user according to therequirements.

In this embodiment, the eye-protection operation for example can includethe following operations, which are the processer 130 orders the displayscreen 110 of the mobile device 100 to display a reminder information oran alert information, or orders the mobile device 100 to generate soundsto remind the user that his eyes overuse through the audio device in themobile device 100. If the user has triggered the eye-protectionoperation many times in one day, the processer 130 can temporarily turnoff the display screen 110, enforce the mobile device 100 to enter asleeping state or directly shut down the mobile device 100. Theeye-protection operation can be adjusted appropriately according to theuser's requirements and the corresponding functional device in themobile device 100, only the user can be aware of the overuse of theeyes.

It is noted that the processer 130 further can judge whether theadjacent time periods are added up automatically, which is to furthersum up the adjacent time periods having an interval in the range of aninterval threshold to become another cumulative time TD, and theprocesser 130 judges whether to perform the eye-protection operationthrough the cumulative time TD. FIG. 3A is a flowchart illustrating aneye-protection control method of the mobile device 100 according to asecond embodiment of the present invention. Refer to FIG. 1 togetherwith FIG. 3A, in which the steps S310, S320, S330 in FIG. 3A are thesame as the steps S210, S220, S230 in FIG. 2.

In the step S332, the processer 130 judges whether an interval betweenone of the time periods and a former one of the time periods is inexcess of the interval threshold calculated in the step S330 (forexample, the interval threshold is set to be 10 or 30 minutes). Forclarity, refer to FIG. 4A and FIG. 4B together with the correspondingsteps in FIG. 3A. FIG. 4A and FIG. 4B are schematic diagramsillustrating three sequential time periods while the first image in thethree sequential time periods has the human face information of the sameuser, in which the intervals A1, B1 and B2 are respectively not inexcess of the interval threshold, and the interval A2 is in excess ofthe interval threshold. In detail, the process 130 judges whether theintervals A1, A2 between the former time period T1 and the present timeperiod T2 are in excess of the interval threshold (for example 10 or 30minutes) after obtaining the time period T2 calculated in the step S330.When the judgment result in the step S332 is “No”, the processer 130enters the step S340 and adds the time period T2 after the interval A1into the cumulative time TD. When no other time periods is before thetime period T1 and no interval between the time period T2 and anothertime period right next to the time period T2 is not in excess of theinterval threshold, the cumulative time TD is the sum of the time periodT1 and the time period T2, as shown at middle part in FIG. 4A. On thecontrary, when the judgment result in the step S332 is “Yes”, as shownin FIG. 4B, which means the time period T1 won't be added into thecumulative time, the processer 130 enters the step S334 from the stepS332 and makes the cumulative time TD zero first, which is to set TD=0.After that, in the step S340, the processer 130 adds the time period T2after the time interval into the cumulative time TD. Accordingly, thecumulative time TD becomes the remained time period T2 without othertime periods while no interval between the time period T2 and anothertime period right next to the time period T2 is not in excess of theinterval threshold. Also, the process 130 may further judge whether theintervals B1, B2 between the present time period T2 and the later timeperiod T3 are in excess of the interval threshold after obtaining thetime period T3 calculated in the step S330. When the interval B1 betweenthe time period T2 and the time period T3 is not in excess of theinterval threshold, the cumulative TD is the sum of the time period T1,the time period T2 and the time period T3, as shown at right part inFIG. 4A. When the interval B2 between the time period T2 and the timeperiod T3 is not in excess of the interval threshold, the cumulative TDis the sum of the time period T2 and the time period T3, as shown atright part in FIG. 4B.

Referring back to FIG. 3A, in the step S350, the processer 130 judgeswhether to perform the eye-protection operation through the abovecumulative time TD and the time threshold. For example, when thecumulative time TD of the interval less than the interval threshold(such as 10 minutes) is in excess of the time threshold (such as 60minutes), the processer 130 performs the eye-protection operation.

In the present invention, the first image in different time periods mayhas the human face information of different users. While this happens,the processer 130 separately counts the time periods for each user.Specifically, refer to FIG. 3B and FIG. 4C together with FIG. 1. FIG. 3Bis a flowchart illustrating an eye-protection control method of themobile device 100 according to a variant of the second embodiment of thepresent invention, and FIG. 4C is a schematic diagram illustrating foursequential time periods while the first image in the four sequentialtime periods has the human face information of different users. The stepS410 in FIG. 3B are the same as the step S310 in FIG. 3A. After that, inthe step S420, the processer 130 performs a human face detection to thefirst image so as to judge whether the first image has a human faceinformation of a user. In detail, the human face detection is to judgewhether the first image has a human face information of the first useror whether the image has another human face information of the seconduser.

In the next step S422, a plurality of time periods, such as first timeperiods T1′ and T3′, are counted when the first image has the human faceinformation of a first user, and a plurality of time periods, such assecond time periods T2′ and T4′, are counted when the first image hasthe human face information of a second user.

In the step S424, the processer 130 judges whether the human faceinformation of the first image in two adjacent time periods belongs tothe same user. If the judgment result in the step S424 is “No”, theprocesser 130 enters the step S426 and further judges whether the firstimage in another one of the time periods before the two adjacent timeperiods and in the later one of the two adjacent time periods has thehuman face information of the same user. If the judgment result in thestep S426 is “Yes”, the process 130 enters the step S428 and judgeswhether an interval between the another one of the time periods beforethe two adjacent time and the later one of the two adjacent time periodsis in excess of the interval threshold. For example, the two adjacenttime periods may be the second time period T2′ and the first time periodT3′ that doesn't belong to the same user, and the first time period T1′is before the second time period T2′ and the first time period T3′.Thus, the first time periods T1′ and T3′ belong to the first user. Afterobtaining the time period T3′, since the human face information of thefirst image in the time periods T1′, T3′ belong to the same first user,the interval for the first user is the sum of an interval C1 between thetime periods T1′, T2′, the time period T2′ and an interval C2 betweenthe time periods T2′, T3′, which is needed to be compared with theinterval threshold. Also, if the two adjacent time periods for exampleare the first time period T3′ and the second time period T4′, and thesecond time period T2′ is before the first time period T3′ and thesecond time period T4′, after obtaining the time period T4′, theinterval for the second user is the sum of an interval C2 between thetime periods T2′, T3′, the time period T3′ and an interval C3 betweenthe time periods T3′, T4′, which is needed to be compared with theinterval threshold. If the judgment result in the step S426 is “No”, theprocesser 130 returns back to the step S422 and counts the time periodswhen the first image has the human face information of the first userand the second user. For example, after obtaining the time period T3′,if no time period of the first user is before the time periods T2′, T3′,the cumulative time of the first user is the time period T3′, and theprocesser 130 continues to count the time periods.

If the judgment result in the step S428 is “Yes”, which means theinterval for the first user is in excess of the interval threshold, theprocesser 130 enters the step S440 and makes a first cumulative time ofthe first user zero, and adds the later one of the two adjacent timeperiods, such as the first time period T3′, after the interval into thecumulative time of the first user. Also, if the interval for the seconduser is in excess of the interval threshold, the processer 130 makes thecumulative time of the second user zero, and adds the time period T4′after the interval into the cumulative time of the second user. If thejudgment result in the step S428 is “No”, the processer 130 enters thestep S450 and adds the another one of the time periods and the later oneof the two adjacent time periods, such as the first time periods T1′ andT3′ into the cumulative time of the first user. Accordingly, the firstcumulative time of the first user becomes the sum of the first timeperiods T1′ and T3′. Also, if the second time period T4′ is obtainedafter the first time period T3′ and the judgment result in the step S428is “No”, which means the interval for the second user is not in excessof the interval threshold, the second cumulative time of the second userbecomes the sum of the second time periods T2′, T4′. Thus, the processer130 can separately count the first time periods T1′ and T3′ for thefirst user and the second time periods T2′ and T4′ for the second user.Then, in the step S460, the processer 130 judges whether to perform aneye-protection operation to the first user through the above firstcumulative time and the time threshold, and judges whether to performthe eye-protection operation to the second user through the above secondcumulative time and the time threshold. When the first cumulative timeis larger than the time threshold, the eye-protection operation isperformed to the first user. When the second cumulative time is largerthan the time threshold, the eye-protection operation is performed tothe second user.

Additionally, if the judgment result in the step S424 is “Yes”, theprocesser 130 enters the step S430 and judges whether an intervalbetween the two adjacent time periods is in excess of the intervalthreshold, which is the same as the step S332 shown in FIG. 3A.

Referring back to FIG. 1, the processer 130 may obtain the human faceinformation from the first image and further calculate the viewing angleof the user staring at the display screen 110 through the human faceinformation, thereby judging the viewing angle of the user staring atthe display screen 110 is in the suggested eye-protection angle range(such as from 15 degrees to 30 degrees) in order to ensure the usermaintaining a right using posture. FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating aneye-protection control method of the mobile device 100 according to athird embodiment of the present invention. Referring to FIG. 1 and FIG.5, in the step S510, the processer 130 captures the first image throughthe image capture unit 120. In the step S520, the processer 130 performsthe human face detection to the first image to obtain the human faceinformation from the first image. In the step S530, the processer 130calculates the viewing angle of the user staring at the display screen110 through the human face information. Next, in the step S540, theprocesser 130 judges whether the viewing angle is in the eye-protectionangle range (such as in the range from 15 degrees to 30 degrees),thereby judging whether to perform the eye-protection operation. Theabove eye-protection angle range can be preset when the mobile device100 is produced or can be adjusted by the user.

It is noted that the viewing angle of the step S530 in FIG. 5 can becalculated through various ways. The first way is that the processer 130analyzes eye parts of the human face information and further analyzessclera regions and pupil regions of the eye parts so as to judge theviewing angle of the user. The second way is that the processer 130 cancalculate the viewing angle of the user staring at the display screen110 according to eye parts and ear parts in the human face informationof the user. For example, when only one ear part and two eye parts ofthe user are shown in the first image, which means the user's eyesdoesn't look at the display screen 110 of the mobile device 100 but havea line of vision toward other place. In another aspect, the processer130 can judge the viewing angle based on the distance between any two ofthe human face areas, the eye parts and the ear parts after judging theeye parts and the ear parts in the human face information.

The third way to calculate the viewing angle of the user is that theprocesser 130 calculates the viewing angle of the user staring at thedisplay screen 110 according to a position of the human face informationin the first image. FIG. 6A and FIG. 6B are schematic diagramsillustrating the calculation of viewing angle of the user 600 staring atthe display screen 110. Referring to FIG. 6A, when the viewing angle 91of the user 600 staring at the display screen 110 is substantially 90degrees, the first image M1 taken by the image capture unit 120 isillustrated as the left part of FIG. 6A, and the human face information610 of the user 600 is located in the center of the first image M1.Referring to FIG. 6B, when the viewing angle θ2 is ranged substantiallyfrom 15 degrees to 30 degrees, the first image M2 taken by the imagecapture unit 120 is illustrated as the left part of FIG. 6B, and thehuman face information 620 of the user 600 is located at the bottom ofthe first image M1. Thus, the processer 130 of the mobile device 100 cancalculate the viewing angle of the user 600 staring at the displayscreen 110 according to the position of the human face information ofthe user 600 in the first image.

In another aspect, the processer 130 shown in FIG. 1 can provide relatedhealth information to the user through analyzing the human faceinformation of the user. For example, the processer 130 can obtain thedistance between the user's eyes and the mobile device 100 throughanalyzing the human face information of the user and perform theeye-protection operation while the distance is too short. The processer130 may further analyze a color and a distribution of blood vessels of asclera part of the human face information to judge a liver function ofthe user and to provide the related suggestion, which even suggests thatthe user goes to sleep. The processer 130 may further analyze a profileof the human face information to judge whether a weight of the user isincreased or reduced. The processer 130 may further analyze a skin ofthe human face information to display a suggested message of the skinfor the user by the display screen 110.

Besides using the continuous time period or the intermittent timeperiods and the viewing angle of the user staring at the display screen110 as the judgment basis of judging whether the eye-protectionoperation is performed, through the eye movement of the user (such asthe number of blink, staring at the display screen 110 obliquely, etc.),the mobile device 100 can further judge whether to remind the user bythe eye-protection operation to prevent the user from incorrect posturethat generates bad eyes in this embodiment.

According to the investigation done by the medicine-related researchinstitute, the number of blink of a general person is about 15 times to20 times per minute; the number of blink in reading book is about 10times per minute; the number of blink in operating computer is about 4times to 5 times per minute; and the number of blink of the user indriving car or playing game is only 2 times to 3 times per minute. Ifthe number of blink is reduced to be about 10 times per minute, the eyesstill can have the completeness of the tear film, but if the number ofblink is reduced to be about 4 times to 5 times per minute, the eyeswill have a symptom of dryness. As the above-mentioned data, when theconcentration of the user is higher, the number of blink per minute islower. However, the tear rapidly evaporates when the user doesn't blinkfor a long time, which results in over dryness of the eyes. In addition,when the eyes look at an object close thereto for a long time, theciliary muscle will be in a strain state, and the eyes are easilyfatigued, especially for a person with farsightedness ornearsightedness, it is easier to overuse the ciliary muscle. Becausethat, lack of the tear more easily occurs, which causes the eyes to feelsore and even more seriously to have dry eye syndrome. Hence, theprocesser 130 of the mobile device 100 in the fourth embodiment of thepresent invention may further calculate the number of blink of the userin a cumulative time that is the sum of a plurality of time periodsaccording to the eye parts of the human face information in the firstimage and judge whether to perform the eye-protection operationaccording to the number of blink. For example, the eye-protectionoperation may be to remind the user of having too less number of blink.Accordingly, the user can be prevented from being too focus to rememberto wink while staring at the display screen 110.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart illustrating an eye-protection control method ofthe mobile device 100 according to a fourth embodiment of the presentinvention. Referring to FIG. 1 and FIG. 7, in the step S710, theprocesser 130 captures the first image through the image capture unit120 and calculates the number of blink of the user in theabove-mentioned cumulative time according to the eye parts of the humanface information in the first image. In the step S720, the processer 130judges whether to perform the eye-protection operation according to thenumber of blink. The step S720 can be consisted of the step S722 and thestep S724. In the step S722, the processer 130 judges whether the numberof blink in a predetermined time is lower a predetermined value. In thisembodiment, the predetermined value may be 4 times or 5 times perminute. When the number of blink is less than the predetermined value,the processer 130 enters the step S724 from the step S722 and performsthe eye-protection operation. On the contrary, when the number of blinkis larger than the predetermined value, the processer 130 returns backto the step S710 from the step S722 and continues to detect the numberof blink in the predetermined time.

The “strabismus” provided herein serves as a fifth embodiment of an eyemovement of the user, and the issue of the strabismus of the user isexpected to be adjusted or corrected by the help of the mobile device100. The “strabismus” is an abnormal condition of the eyes. Both eyes ofthe person with strabismus are prevented from aiming at the same pointin space, so that the vision of both eyes and the perception to depth offield of the person are lower than that of a person with normal vision.The strabismus results in a more serious vision problem, such as lowvision. For preventing acquired strabismus, the processer 130 in themobile device 100 of the fifth embodiment of the present invention maycalculate a left face area and a right face area of the human faceinformation in the first image, and when the left face area and theright face area are not symmetric to each other in a predetermined time(which means a ratio of the left face area to the right face area is toolarge), the user stares at the display screen obliquely for a long time,and there is a need to perform the eye-protection operation to preventthe user from the acquired strabismus.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart illustrating an eye-protection control method ofthe mobile device 100 according to the fifth embodiment of the presentinvention. FIG. 9A and FIG. 9B are schematic diagrams illustrating theleft face area and the right face area of the human face informationaccording to the fifth embodiment of the present invention. Referring toFIG. 1 and FIG. 8, in the step S810, the processer 130 captures thefirst image through the image capture unit 120 and calculates the leftface area and the right face area of the human face information in thefirst image. In the step S820, the processer 130 judges whether a ratioof the left face area to the right face area is equal to thepredetermined ratio in the predetermined time. For example, referring toFIG. 9A, when the user doesn't squint the display screen 110, the image910 captured by the image capture unit 120 is shown in FIG. 9A, and theratio of the right face area 920 to the left face area 930 is ideallyclose to 1:1 (which is the predetermined ratio). In practicality, anarea among a side of the right face, the right eye and the nose servesas the right face area 920, and an area among a side of the left face,the left eye and the nose serves as the left face area 930. However,when the user stares at the display screen 110 obliquely, the image isshown in FIG. 9B, and the ratio of the right face area 920 to the leftface area 930 is not close to 1:1 (for example, the predetermined normalvalue of the ratio of the left face area to the right face area can beset in a range from 0.9 to 1.1), which means a face area seen from asquint direction (such as the left face area 932) is larger than anotherface area seen from the squint direction (such as the right face area922). For example, the ratio of the right face area 922 to the left facearea 932 may be 2:3 or 1:2. Hence, when the ratio of the left face area932 to the right face area 922 is not equal to the predetermined ratioin the predetermined time, the processer 130 enters the step S830 fromthe step S820, and the processer 130 judges that the user stares at thedisplay screen 110 obliquely and performs the eye-protection operation.On the other hand, when the ratio of the left face area to the rightface area is equal to the predetermined ratio in the predetermined time,the processer 130 returns back to the step S810 from the step S820 andcontinues detecting whether the user stares at the display screen 100.In another embodiment, when the ratio of the left face area 932 to theright face area 922 is not equal to the predetermined ratio in thepredetermined time, the processer 130 may inform the user the ratioand/or the using time, such as show the result, when the user ends theusage or the user uses it next time.

As the above-mentioned description, in the embodiments of the presentinvention, the mobile device and the eye-protection control methodthereof can actively detect and record the time periods while the useruses the mobile device, the viewing angle and the viewing distance whilethe user stares at the display screen, and judge whether to remind theuser to protect eyes or whether to perform an eye-protection operationthrough the cumulative time periods, so that the user's eyes isprotected from overuse to achieve the reminding to use the mobile deviceproperly and is protected from harm due to the user staring at thedisplay screen too long and improperly. In addition, the healthsituation of the user can be obtained through analyzing the human faceinformation of the user, and a corresponding advice is further providedin the embodiments of the present invention.

Those skilled in the art will readily observe that numerousmodifications and alterations of the device and method may be made whileretaining the teachings of the invention. Accordingly, the abovedisclosure should be construed as limited only by the metes and boundsof the appended claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. An eye-protection control method of a mobiledevice, wherein the mobile device comprises an image capture unit, andthe eye-protection control method comprises: capturing an image by theimage capture unit; performing a human face detection to the image tojudge whether the image has a human face information of a user; countinga plurality of time periods when the image has the human faceinformation and adding up the time periods to a cumulative time; andperforming a judgment through the cumulative time and a time threshold,and performing an eye-protection operation when the cumulative time islarger than the time threshold.
 2. The eye-protection control method ofthe mobile device according to claim 1, wherein the eye-protectionoperation comprises displaying a reminder information or an alertinformation by a display screen of the mobile device, temporarilyturning off the display screen or shutting down the mobile device. 3.The eye-protection control method of the mobile device according toclaim 1, wherein counting the time periods when the image has the humanface information and adding up the time periods to the cumulative timecomprise: judging whether an interval between two of the time periodsadjacent to each other is in excess of an interval threshold; adding thetwo of the time periods into the cumulative time when the intervalbetween the two of the time periods adjacent to each other is not inexcess of the interval threshold; and making the cumulative time zeroand adding the time periods after the interval into the cumulative timewhen the interval between the two of the time periods adjacent to eachother is in excess of the interval threshold.
 4. The eye-protectioncontrol method of the mobile device according to claim 3, wherein thetime threshold and the interval threshold are predetermined values ofthe mobile device or values set by the user.
 5. The eye-protectioncontrol method of the mobile device according to claim 1, whereincounting the time periods when the image has the human face informationand adding up the time periods to the cumulative time comprise: judgingwhether the human face information of the image in two of the timeperiods adjacent to each other belong to the user; judging whether theimage in another one of the time periods before the two of the timeperiods and in a later one of the two of the time periods has the humanface information of the user when the human face information of theimage in the two of the time periods adjacent to each other doesn'tbelong to the user; and judging whether an interval between the anotherone of the time periods before the two of the time periods and the laterone of the two of the time periods is in excess of an interval thresholdwhen the image in the another one of the time periods before the two ofthe time periods and in the later one of the two of the time periods hasthe human face information of the user.
 6. The eye-protection controlmethod of the mobile device according to claim 5, wherein counting thetime periods when the image has the human face information and adding upthe time periods to the cumulative time comprise: adding the another oneof the time periods and the later one of the two of the time periodsinto the cumulative time when the interval between the another one ofthe time periods before the two of the time periods and the later one ofthe two of the time periods is not in excess of the interval threshold;and making the cumulative time zero and adding the later one of the twoof the time periods after the interval into the cumulative time when theinterval between the another one of the time periods before the two ofthe time periods and the later one of the two of the time periods is notin excess of the interval threshold.
 7. The eye-protection controlmethod of the mobile device according to claim 1, further comprising:counting a number of blink of the user in a predetermined time accordingto an eye part of the human face information in the image; and judgingwhether to perform the eye-protection operation according to the numberof blink, wherein the eye-protection operation is performed when thenumber of the blink is less than a predetermined value.
 8. Theeye-protection control method of the mobile device according to claim 1,further comprising: calculating a left face area and a right face areaof the human face information in the image; and judging that the userstares at the display screen obliquely when a ratio of the left facearea to the right face area is not equal to a predetermined ratio in apredetermined time and performing the eye-protection operation.
 9. Amobile device, comprising: a display screen for displaying information;an image capture unit, wherein the image capture unit captures an image;and a processer coupled to the image capture unit to obtain the image,wherein the processer performs a human face detection on the image so asto obtain a human face information from the image, detects a left facearea and a right face area of the human face information, and theprocesser judges that the user stares at the display screen obliquelyand performs an eye-protection operation when a ratio of the left facearea to the right face area is not equal to a predetermined ratio in apredetermined time.
 10. The mobile device according to claim 9, whereinthe processer calculates a viewing angle of the user staring at thedisplay screen through the human face information and judges whether theviewing angle is disposed in an eye-protection angle range, therebyjudging whether to perform the eye-protection operation, wherein theprocesser calculates the viewing angle of the user staring at thedisplay screen according to eye parts and ear parts in the human faceinformation.
 11. The mobile device according to claim 9, wherein theprocesser counts a number of blink of the user in a predetermined timeaccording to eye parts of the human face information in the image andjudges whether to perform the eye-protection operation, wherein theprocesser performs the eye-protection operation when the number of blinkis less than a predetermined value.
 12. The mobile device according toclaim 9, wherein the processer further analyzes a color and adistribution of blood vessels of a sclera part of the human faceinformation to judge a liver function of the user.
 13. The mobile deviceaccording to claim 9, wherein the processer further analyzes a profileof the human face information to judge whether a weight of the user isincreased or reduced.
 14. The mobile device according to claim 9,wherein the processer further analyzes a skin of the human faceinformation to display a suggested message of the skin for the user bythe display screen.
 15. An eye-protection control method of a mobiledevice, wherein the mobile device comprises an image capture unit, andthe eye-protection control method comprises: capturing an image by theimage capture unit; performing a human face detection to the image tojudge whether the image has a human face information of a first user orwhether the image has another human face information of a second user;counting a plurality of first time periods when the image has the humanface information of the first user; judging whether an interval betweentwo of the first time periods adjacent to each other is in excess of aninterval threshold; counting a plurality of second time periods when theimage has the human face information of the second user; and judgingwhether an interval between two of the second time periods adjacent toeach other is in excess of an interval threshold.
 16. The eye-protectioncontrol method of the mobile device according to claim 15, furthercomprising: adding the two of the first time periods into a firstcumulative time when the interval between the two of the first timeperiods adjacent to each other is not in excess of the intervalthreshold; and performing a judgment through the first cumulative timeand a time threshold, and performing an eye-protection operation to thefirst user when the first cumulative time is larger than the timethreshold.
 17. The eye-protection control method of the mobile deviceaccording to claim 15, further comprising: adding the two of the secondtime periods into a second cumulative time when the interval between thetwo of the second time periods adjacent to each other is not in excessof the interval threshold; and performing a judgment through the secondcumulative time and a time threshold, and performing an eye-protectionoperation to the second user when the second cumulative time is largerthan the time threshold.